Happy Anniversary!

This weekend marks a year since we began our Language of Friendship journey. From the start, our goal has been to encourage people to pay more attention to the meaningful friendships in their lives and to nurture them with the love and care they deserve.

While Language of Friendship has not exactly gone viral or become a household name, we feel pretty good about what we’ve done so far because above all, this project was intended to get people talking and thinking more about their friendships. From the feedback we’re getting, we think we’re making progress. Most importantly, we have stayed more connected than ever to each other and to many of our friends through our efforts, and we hope you’ve been inspired to focus on the friendships in your lives as well.

As luck would have it, our LOF anniversary coincides with Valentine’s Day, and it also happened to be the weekend that Julia chose to fly to Boston from Chicago with her oldest son to take in a Celtics game. I met them on Friday night with my family for a true nail-biter of an NBA matchup. The Celtics and Denver Nuggets both played a great game, which until the final minutes could have gone either way. Boston fans went wild when the Celtics pulled off their seventh straight win in part thanks to newcomer Derrick White. This was without a doubt yet another memorable moment for the friendship books!

We had a blast at the game and spending time together walking the streets of Boston Saturday morning, which made for a fitting anniversary weekend. Looking back on some highlights of LOF’s first year, we’ve shared insights from books about the science of friendship and the importance of vulnerability to developing strong friendship. Our story about the friendship hack Julia attributed to her friend and colleague Dean Petrulakis seems to have inspired at least a few Walks With Friends. And, our recent post Lessons in Speaking Out serves as a powerful reminder to stand up for our friends when they need us.

Looking ahead, we plan to continue exploring topics related to friendship, and we’d love to hear from you! How has your year been? Covid restrictions have certainly not been easy on friendships and social connections, but we hope you’ve come through it all with your friends by your side. Maybe you’ve found a few new ways to connect? Share with us. We love hearing from friends near and far.

To all of our LOF friends, Happy Valentine’s Day! And Happy Anniversary, LOF!